The Artist In You
by ilikebirdies
Summary: What would a hot rod like Ezio want to do with something so serene and fitting for a kind heart like Leonardo da Vinci like ART? Inspiration comes from the mind, as does love, and we all know what love can make us do. T for Slash and swearing. BOY ON BOY.
1. The artist within an Assassin

As of late, Leonardo noticed, his good friend Ezio Auditore had become very interested in fine arts. Now the two weren't _best buds_ or any thing, but when Lorenzo de'Medici introduced him to the Auditore family, he knew one of them would be so dumb and so troublesome that they'd end up being one of his 'pals.' Well, that pal would be Ezio, greatest Assassin of the Renaissance, _and_ the most wanted.

So, that being said, what would an Assassin want to do with art? As a fellow painter and sculptor, Leonardo supported his friend wholeheartedly in his new found appreciation for art, suspecting it'd be a phase. Somewhere inside he thought _Maybe Ezio's just desperate to see his family again, and wishes to draw them._ But Ezio was just as enthusiastic as his instructor, even asking "What media do you use?" at one point.

It's hard not to let your jaw hit the floor when a sexy, _killing_ machine asks you what you do to _draw_. It seemed too...too kindhearted for Ezio - almost uncharacteristic. Leonardo smiled at the emotion, though, putting a hand on the other's back to usher him out of the work-shoppe and into the streets of Venice, sketchpad, pencil, and eraser in hand.

"What's wrong, _mio amico_?" Ezio was only _hoping_ that the artist was leading him to an art-shoppe rather than what they seemed to be headed to – water. What's the fun in water? Despite temptation, Leonardo turned his head from the little paintbrushes and inventions in the shoppes, and kept Ezio away from water (so as not to push him in it). Instead, he climbed up the side of a building – and a tall one, at that – horrible ungracefully, slipping a few times and scattering cuts across his arms and legs – not to mention those precious hands. He collapsed on the top of the building, clattering roof shingles about. Ezio followed suit, with the exception of doing so terribly or being exhausted.

Landing on his feet with a _thud_, then picking himself up, Ezio looked around at the view. It was nice. "Why are we here?"

"..." Moments passed silently as the skilled artist worked to catch his long-lost breath, then stood up, leaning on Ezio's shoulder. Ezio brushed him off, trying to figure out what it was that Leonardo was looking at. Leonardo pointed to the oncoming sun, and Ezio's line of sight was geared to that way.

"What is it?" Ezio frowned.

"What are you looking at?"

"...Look, Leonardo, it's very pretty, but-"

"Yes, it is indeed gorgeous. Look at it again, Ezio, only this time," Leonardo set two fingers on Ezio's chin, pulling the young Assassin's face to meet his own so he could finish his sentence. "With an artistic eye." He smiled lightly, keeping his eyes on Ezio's brown ones. His head titled to the sunrise, then the sketchpad.

He let the younger Italian go when he was sure the other's face flushed a light pink colour. His own cheeks lit up, not going unnoticed.

"_Mio Dio_, Leonardo!" The rhyme mixed with the way the words rolled off his tongue made Leonardo smile, holding a fist up to his mouth in an attempt to stop the laughing. "What's got _you_ flustered?" He asked jokingly, beginning to sketch the scenery as best as his untrained hands could.

By the time the sun had emerged from it's hiding spot behind the forever-going buildings and houses, Leonardo had fallen asleep on Ezio's shoulder, body going limp against him. Ezio's sketch was still incomplete, give or take the hour more it took to add finishing details. He nudged the sleeping friend.

"_Leonardo? Leonardo!_" his voice didn't go over a whisper, but was hoarse and shook his friend to consciousness.

"Hmm? Yes?" Only managing a monotonous ring, Leonardo blinked a few times to capture the panorama, still very tired and groggy. Ezio nearly slammed the picture in his face, and Leonardo had to reel his head back to get a good, proper look, taking the pad in two fingers.

"How does it look?"

"Why, Ezio, it's," a little disappointing perspective-wise, but Leonardo remembered a time when even he couldn't down perspectives, as it was a very hard thing to manage. He still screwed it up on occasions. "beautiful! Very nice work! Excellent use of shading, I see, lots of details, especially on the rooftops." Just to flatter Ezio... "And I _am_ Leonardo da Vinci, so that should say something! I bet _Michelangelo_ would be _jealous_." The words came out in a poisonous hiss. He _hated_ Michelangelo with a _passion_. The bastard was such a cocky _prick_ sometimes.

"Aw, Leonardo, you're just saying that now!" Ezio grinned from ear to ear, shoving the other in the arm with his elbow roughly. Never could the two be happier – Leonardo loved seeing Ezio smile and Ezio felt accomplished.

"Nah, I love it! ...Can I keep it? It's _really, very_ good." A warm smile replaced the devious smirk that had been there upon his lips, but washed away into a confused, tilted, quirky grin as Ezio's arms wrapped around his neck over his shoulder, holding him close; tightly but delicately as if the artist was a walking porcelain doll.

"Of course, _mio amo_."

Amo?

Love?

Leonardo pushed away on Ezio's chest, his face becoming awful red, as he was blushing a considerable amount by now. He looked down, eyes tightly shut.

"E-Ezioooo, don't you know I'm not a girl?" He smiled down at his lap, feeling happy that the words were said, but depressive in that his friend probably didn't mean them, saying it purely in the ecstasy of the moment. It was true – Leonardo was _not_ a girl and, thank God, never would be. Ezio wouldn't love him. The poor boy must've been feeling sick after slaying so many people.

"But I do know! At least...I _think_ you have a -"

"I do!"

"Okay, so what's the problem, then?" Ezio crossed his arms, hurt that his friend would refuse his love.

"Oh, uh..." 'Oh nothing, really, in fact, I'm gay! Hahaha, good times, huh?' Yeah right. "I-I..." _You'll never get a chance. Just lie and keep the friendship strong._ "I prefer women." He said quickly, biting his lip to keep from saying 'Only not really, I was joking,' or something of the sort.

Ezio busted into laughter, causing a greater deal of bewilderment on the poor artist.

"What? Why are you laughing? There's nothing to laugh at."

"Leonardo, my friend," Ezio swung an arm around the shorter man's neck, pulling him close enough so he could whisper. "I'm sorry, but you swing for women about as much as my little brother was healthy."

"Must have been a healthy young boy..."

"He was bound to his bed!" A laughter followed.

"Oh..." Leonardo retreated his gaze to his hands sheepishly.

"You're _gay_!"

"SHHH!" Leonardo's body jerked up, and he slapped a hand forcefully over his friend's mouth. A muffled "Why?" was whined back.

"I was accused of it once and almost killed. Besides, I'm _not_ gay, I just...don't think the woman's reproductive organ is pretty or seductive at _all_." he let Ezio go, who immediately retorted.

"And you think cock is better?"

"Ezio!"

"Well? And any ways, I don't think it's pretty either."

"...Are you implying you're gay too?"

"Are you implying you were gay in the first place?"

"Are you implying I'd do anything with a man?"

"Are you implying you want to?"

"Are you implying you'd also like to?"

"Are you implying I'd want to with you?"

"What kind of flirting is this?"

"Ours." Ezio and Leonardo simultaneously grabbed each other's head some where, _any where_, pushing their lips together fiercely, roughly, _newly_ for Ezio, but not inexperienced. He was quick to open his mouth just the slightest and lick at Leonardo's lips. Leonardo got the move and let the other's tongue in, ravishingly imploring for a response from one another.

With one last moan, Leonardo broke the kiss, inhaling deeply.

"_A-Accidenti_, Ezi-"

"Shh," Ezio hushed him with a grin, cupping his thumb and index finger around Leonardo's chin. "Let's go back to your place, mm?"

The older man could only nod.

"Okay. See you there, _mio amo_!" He plunged down through the air suddenly, from the frightfully high tower, Leonardo watching him just to be safe. Any suspicions of death were eliminated as the Assassin poked out his head then hopped out from within the stack and went barreling down a street, making civilians jump. He turned his head for one critical second, smiling to reassure the painter.

With a flourish, Leonardo came down, very similarly to the way he came up. As his feet hit the ground, he sighed, brushing off any dirt that might've resided in his clothing, holding the sketchpad to his chest and falling back into the hay, now only having his legs be visible to the public.

"_Mio Dio_, Ezio," He muttered. "_You've_ get me flustered." He whispered, kissing the drawing.

* * *

Okay I actually went through and edited this one before posting it. :V I wrote this for DeeNuke down at deviantART because she has very long days at work and needs some EzioLeo to brighten the day up! XD

I don't like this pairing so much... I like to imagine Ezio as a womanizer. XD It's kinda cute for the flufffluff aspect, though. :D But I'm pretty sure Leonardo had a secret relationship...:(

Any ways, enjoy! This is chapter 1 of 3. :D


	2. The art of screaming

When Leonardo got so mad at his art and crumple it up to toss it in a fire, never to be cherished again, Ezio would just freak out and question the artists' sanity entirely. Compared to even a trained artist, that 'trash' was magnificent! But to Leonardo da Vinci, it was apparently…nothing. This made Ezio disappointed.  
"Come now, Leonardo," he'd always say. Even the way he'd make his Rs roll specially for such occasions would not cheer up the heap of depressive skin on the chair. "It looked fine." With that, Leonardo would turn around, face hollowed and darkened with anger and lack of food from stress and say in the most husky voice Ezio would've heard for a while,  
"Yes, it _was_ fine. Was fine. Get it? Now it's gone and it was only fine, Ezio, and fine doesn't get you round the goddamn _corner_ in the art world!" Then he'd throw his arms up, exasperated at how 'dumb' Ezio could be and spin back around to his desk, sighing, resting his elbows on the table and face in his palms. He'd make Ezio feel guilty even when he was trying to help.  
"Oh…Sorry, Leonar-"  
"'Oh, sorry Leonardo!' IS NOT GOING TO MAKE ME A BETTER ARTIST! Just go away! I've got enough to deal with without throwing a retarded homo 17-year-old Assassin-wannabe in the mix!" Leonardo would mock a little girl and was so good at it that Ezio would want to snigger. But when Leonardo got like that, Ezio _would_ go away, even if it was Leonardo who just called him quite a few dramatic names, feeling like a horrible friend.

Today, though, he would not have it.

He'd spent all day – very literally – trying to draw a human but could not get the facial-features down. _He_ felt like the bad artist and he _knew_ it was _terrible_. So when Leonardo started having a fit and threw a tantrum, Ezio grabbed the paper from under his pencil and stared at it coldly for a long time, one of those disappointing scowls written all over instead of the pity that Leonardo subconsciously wished Ezio would pan out for him.  
"It looks _fine_, Leonardo." He said, flatly. No R rolling. No emotion. Leonardo opened his mouth to object with the famous "_Just_ fine" line, but Ezio interjected his train of thoughts quickly. "And by _fine_ I mean that it is _anatomically_ correct, the colour choice is fine, the hair doesn't make him look like he's balding and the border isn't too distracting or boring. It lives up to the title of 'a piece of artwork.'" He slammed the art down on the table where it had been snatched and put the fire out with a convenient large bowl of water that Leonardo had set on the table in case he started painting. In spite of anger, he missed completely.  
"_Capisce_? So shut up and finish it." Ezio couldn't _stand_ it when Leonardo took his talent for granted, or called it '_merda_' because when he did that, he was calling any one with inferior skills an even shittier artist which was, to say, _everyone_.  
"But Ezio, it-"  
"'But Ezio, it looks really bad this time! For real! I know it! Last time I was just…overwhelmed!'" Ezio mocked a few gestures Leonardo might make, and, finding himself in one, the artist stared at his feet and put his hands in his lap, frowning sheepishly. He exhaled depressively.  
"Yeah…"  
"No. Do you think Michelangelo does this, Leonardo?" Ezio picked a paintbrush up out of the bucket with a flourish, jabbing it roughly onto Leonardo's forehead. Time to get _mad._  
"Huh?"  
"Do you _think_? _Michelangelo_. Does _this_?" He flailed dramatically at Leonardo, who shrugged and pretended to be busy staring at the folds in the lap of his pants.  
"Aww, Weonardo da Vinci's going to give me the cold shoulder like a _damn_," his fist pounded on the table, making everything shudder. "_FIVE YEAR OLD_?" His glare was poking into Leonardo's hat menacingly, making the other look up as if he might start bawling at his _amico's_ anger. Some _amico_ he was. "Do you think that stupid pansy sits here and slits his throat because a goddamn eyelash is bent out of fucking place?" He didn't mean it, but the mention of another possible flaw in his art got Leonardo glancing over his work briefly. Then something wooden crashed into the side of his skull with a sickening _crack_! "Or because one damn finger is about one fifth of a millimeter longer than the others? LOOK AT ME, LEONARDO DI SER PIERO DA VINCI!" At hearing his full name, Leonardo's head snapped back to the fuming Assassin. "You are the _best_ artist this whole world and the stars above have to offer and you do _this_?" His voice cracked and he waved harshly at the burning wood and several papers. "Or should I go tell Michelangelo that you've given up?"  
"Where did you come up with tha-"  
"YOU! Every time you mess up, you refuse to work through it, and then the rocks fall, then the world explodes, THE END!" His anger was now uncontrollable, and he really had no idea what he was saying, rocks, and the world, and kaboom…For a change, Leonardo felt so guilty he thought it would be a disgrace to just sit.  
"Ezio, I'm sor-"  
"SORRY WON'T MAKE YOU A BETTER ARTIST, OH NO, SO GET TO DRAWIN'! Go on, little artist boy from down the lane!" He got another paintbrush and shoved it in Leonardo's hand, forcing him to paint nothing on the table. "Go make art!" Tears? But why? Leonardo should be the one crying and instead Ezio was. He wiped them away on the back of his leather-gloved hand, looking at it, and then rising from the table. "I envy you, Leonardo. I wish I could produce what you call 'a shitty sketch' into my finest 'works,' if you can even call them that. But I can't, and I never will, so for the sake of my inability to draw, just…just do what you do best. Just draw." Unable to be angry any more, Ezio left, leaving a very hurt, confused, and loved da Vinci behind.  
"…I-I am. I am, Ezio! I am!" Leonardo hopped up, chasing after his friend who'd gotten some distance on him already. When he caught up, mere seconds later, he just about _attacked_ him with a hug. Ezio had whipped around just in time for not his back to get physically abused, but his chest, and ended up falling quite nicely and gracefully on his back.  
"You are _what_?" He groaned.  
"I _am_ a good artist! I'll be an artist for both of us!" He smiled lovingly and, even though the artist seemed to have flip-flopped moods, Ezio's frown remained and his eyes were still shadowed with anger.  
"_Va bene_. Now get off my, fatty."  
"Fatty?" Leonardo lifted his shirt, accused; trying to comprehend having a flat stomach was being a 'fatty.'  
And not _just_ a flat stomach. Somehow the artist was well-built. Not as muscular as Ezio, but _damn_, he was hot! On an impulse foreign to him, Ezio forgot all that anger and leaned forward and let his lips hover over the tightened abs, hand gently pushing up past the cloth's barriers to pinch and play at a nipple. A gasp elicited from the older Italian, shocked that Ezio would dare do such a forbidden thing in the middle of the street but oh, the thought of it and a couple lowly moaned warnings from his artistic friend only coaxed him into going on further, kissing up his chest then lightly on Leonardo's lips but once.  
Leonardo prolonged it into two, then three, then five and so on until they were blatantly making out in the popular street, even at the dead of night. They became more intimate, tongues being added to the play and Leonardo even pushed Ezio back down to grind their hips together, the rolling matching the Assassin's growling and moaning.  
"Leonardo!" Ezio managed to yelp, but was pulled back into a hot fit of snogging. "Leonardo!" Unwillingly to both, the other stopped, arousal already creeping up both their spines.  
"What?" He squeezed in a couple presses before the other continued.  
"We should," Leonardo kept going, despite Ezio's attempt to make sentences. "At least go inside!"  
"I say we fuck Italy up the a-"  
"No no," Ezio picked Leonardo up, going back into the studio with a kick of his foot and setting the now-begging man in his chair. "But we can certainly fuck."

* * *

**A/N: **Aarrgghhhh! This took too long, I know, lots of shit going on at home. Sorry this chapter is so short and fail-esque. According to my "betas," the scene where Ezio's raeging and yelling at Leo is fzcking amazing. IDK. READ AND REVIEW. God knows no one on dA says any thing lmfao. HOPE YOU LIKE-Y. Yes I suck at sexual scenes.

Also yes, I know, Leonardo's full name would not be said like that (courtesy of Ellen. ;D). BUT IDCCCC. It's funner that way.


	3. The art of loving FINALE

After they got into the workshoppe, things went downhill.

In what sequence, Leonardo didn't know, but at some point or another Ezio had failed to suck him off properly, was too rough with the kissing for Leonardo's tastes and turned him off, bumped their foreheads or noses together on various occasions and it turns out Leonardo didn't like being called profane things during sex. At the end, though, Leonardo had _thrown_ Ezio off, screaming about this and that and whatnot and Ezio's face flushed, then he stomped out like a pouting 3-year-old, saying Leonardo was "just and underused old man," which in turn made Leonardo slap him.

They hadn't talked since, and it had been, what, a week?

No codex pages had come in, no new modules or whatever, no dropping by to say "Hi!" or to check up on the artist's well being - complete and utter solitude. Normally, this was an artist's dream; to be all alone to work on whatever came to mind at that very second without interruption that could jeopardize successful completion of the bit of work, yet…Leonardo felt _too_ alone, and it made no sense! He always wanted to be alone, and there he was, alone, with nothing to do but let his pencil hover over paper, unwillingly scribbling down a lady's face. A wise man once said that if you continue to work under stress, nothing will get done. This was true in Leonardo's case because no matter how hard he tried, that lady's hair was not sitting how he wanted it to. How ludicrous! Such a simple thing like hair that took him merely 30 seconds in some sketches had taken him an hour to do nothing with!

A hand was gently curled around his own, and, random and concerning as it was, Leonardo let the hand direct his own in swishing paths, creating the hair to fall and cascade beautifully atop her shoulder. The blonde blinked a few times, trying to recognize the hand in the poor lighting. It was who he suspected upon smelling the leather: Ezio. Why had he returned?

"There," he stood upright, taking a better look at what he's helped the skilled artist draw. "You weren't using your shoulders to draw it. I don't think you should be drawing – you're too stiff right now!" Ezio pressed his fingers into the other's shoulder blades, rubbing in circles to relax the other. Leonardo obligingly rested on the seat's back, almost drifting off into sleep when the voice came again.

"Why haven't you visited me?" Surprisingly, it was his own voice. The massaging stopped, and Leonardo whined at the loss.

"…I needed a break."

"But why? I never meant to upset you, really! It just…didn't feel passionate enough. I had every right to-"

"Yes, you did, and I'm glad you stopped me, I never would have forgiven myself if we'd gone through with that against your every will."

"Come off it, now, it wasn't against _every_ wi-"

"But you weren't totally into it, and I could tell."

"Then why didn't you make the first move to get off?"

"…I don't know, Leonardo. Why do you draw," he motioned at the pencil in his hand, despite the cramps that kept him from wanting to continue. "When you don't want to?"

"Because inside I know I want to create something beautiful. Even if the process of making it is ugly and twisted and even painful," the artist dropped the pencil lightly and rubbed the center of his palm roughly. "I know the outcome is going to be satisfactory." He smiled down to his hand which was still rubbing tenderly at the knotted muscles.

"Then that is why _I_ kept going, Leonardo." Ezio leaned down, looking at the other with the most sincere gaze he could manage. Honestly, it was cute, but Leonardo was touched. He knew what Ezio was getting at.

"…Are you insinuating that you love me?"

"Are you insinuating it was obvious?"

"Stop that!" Leonardo giggled, jumping up to wrap his arms around Ezio's neck in an embrace. Catching him in his arms, Ezio reeled his head back in a short moment of shock, and then kissed Leonardo gingerly.

"Oh, Ezio!" Leonardo continued. "…I-I love you…I really do…"

"I would hope so!" Planting another kiss on Leonardo, Ezio hauled the man upstairs where there was a bedroom. He had no intentions of adultery, just somewhere where the smell of dead bodies wasn't so prominent.

"And?"

"I love you too! Naturally."

"Naturally?"

"What's not to love?"

"That's so cliché, Ezio…" Leonardo moaned in embarrassment, nuzzling his face into the crook of the other's reddened neck.

"Yes. But clichés were made so that people like me could make people like you embarrassed."

"It worked!"

"Good." He set the other down finally, and sat beside him. The two stared at each other lovingly for a while, the sunset glowing beautifully on Ezio's suntanned skin.

There was nothing else to say. They both truly did love each other, and that was that. Nothing more to it.

Loving to have the last word, Ezio added: "If I could propose to you, I would."

Leonardo cocked his body back at the slight flinch Ezio made in an attempt to continue the kissing.

"Wh-What?"

"Oh, come on, Leonardo, you didn't feel the same?"

"You're so young, how could you know what marriage means?"

"I know it means I would die with you…"

"You're being cliché again!" Leonardo nearly broke down into tears at how love-y Ezio was being. It was a bit humiliating to his ego of wanting to take Ezio seriously, but the man was trying too damn hard, and was too damn cute to pass up. He snuck in another peck.

"I try."

"I'm sure."

"What's that suppo-?" Leonardo quickly set a finger on Ezio's lips, then replaced it with his own.

"Don't ruin the moment," he murmured against the other. "Just kiss me." Ezio nodded, and returned all the kisses.

After that day, Ezio never really _did_ get back into art.

* * *

**A/N:** IT'S OVERRRR /StrongBad

Just to clear things up, yes, Ezio _did_ only get into art for the sake of getting Leonardo's love, and now that he had it at the end of the story, he figured "Why stay into art?" I think you all are smart enough to've gotten that, but in case you didn't catch on...!


End file.
